Week 40: Playdate with Aunty Mandy

Aunty Mandy came over to play with you today so I took some photos of you together in the garden. I love taking photos of you playing in the garden. The sunlight is gorgeous and the lawn looks so nice after Daddy did some mowing on the weekend. Can't wait for you to be able to run around the garden.

You can see your 2 little teeth!

Week 40: Video round-up

Oh my gosh, you're 40 weeks old already! I think you had a growth spurt last week, your legs look so long now. I've got lots of youtube videos that haven't been added to the blog, so here's a long round-up:

You're doing a lot of reverse scooting around now and we really need to start baby proofing. You love to eat everything, including my slippers and the carpet (ugh). I have to keep a careful eye on you!

You are getting better at crawling backwards but I can tell you're frustrated at not being able to reach things that are in front of you.

You've learnt to scoot around on your bum! So funny.

Aunty Mandy told me about the "red dot experiment" to test your self-awareness. I put a red dot on your nose and put you in front of the mirror. You didn't touch your nose so it means you're not aware that the person in the mirror is you. Apparently babies aren't self-aware until 18 months, so I'll test you again in a few months to see.

Trying to feed yourself:

Week 39 photo story: Morning play

The light looked lovely this morning after we finished breakfast, so I took you outside to play on the lawn.

9 month sticker photos and video

You're 9 months old now (39 weeks) and you've become more active and alert compared to last month. You're also falling asleep on your own now. I just put you down into your crib for the night and you didn't even cry like you did yesterday. I can't believe how well you are settling yourself to sleep. You're now only waking up once at night at 4am. I spoke to the baby health nurse today and she suggested I feed you mashed food instead of puree so that it takes longer to digest and you will be less likely to wake up from being hungry. So we did that today. Let's hope you slowly grow out of the 4am feed and sleep through the night!

You're still shuffling backwards to get around, though I can see you getting more confident scooting around the mat. You're more restless now and fidgety, like you really want to start moving around. You can see it in the video below:

You've still got so many funny expressions! Grandma and Grandpa were so worried you would fall off the couch because you kept tipping yourself forward. So they kept moving you closer and closer to the inside of the couch. Grandparents are so cute.

Week 38: Peekaboo!

You loved playing peekaboo today! This is such a cute video of you having fun:

I took out your old playmat this morning and you had a lot of fun with the mirror. You were never fascinated with the mirror before but today you couldn't stop laughing at your reflection:

Lucky I took out these new shoes for you to wear on the weekend. They are sized 12-18months but just fit you now! Your feet are big...!

Week 38: Flowers

We explored the garden yesterday. You were fascinated with the grass and flowers.

Week 38: Laughing and sippy cups

For some reason, you find it hilarious when I do the sign language for 'finish'. I was asking if you had finished your lunch - when you saw my hands moving, you cracked up!

Your first tooth finally surfaced!

More videos - sippy cup action:

Week 38: Sleep training...again

We've moved into our new home almost a month now and your night-time sleep has been getting worse and worse. Early this week you were waking up every 2 hours at night and my usual tactic of feeding you to sleep was no longer working. I was exhausted and looked into booking a stay at the Tresilian to get some professional help to sleep train you. I made an appointment with the early childhood centre so that I could get a referral. A friend of mine had just been to Tresilian and said it had changed their lives, her daughter now sleeps through the night and goes down for long naps without any hassles. It sounded too good to be true! Alas, it seems lots of people need help with sleep-training and the waiting period is over a month. I had to do something now, especially as we just got a spot at daycare for you starting next Jan. I need you to be able to self-settle and be able to nap during the day without me being right next to you

So, the hard work started 2 nights ago. I read a book that promised sleep-training in 3 days...so I started following the instructions. I went through your usual routine and put you down in your crib rather than letting you fall asleep after your feed. Then I left the room. Previously I was staying in the room because I didn't want you to think I was abandoning you but that was obviously not working. Sometimes I was stuck in the room for over an hour shushing you and patting you until I got hungry for dinner and Daddy had to take over. This time, I shut the door and put the timer on. I counted down to 5 minutes while listening to the sounds of your cries. I had to learn to decipher when you were really upset (escalating cry) or if you were settling yourself into sleep (intermittent crying or woo-wooing). After 5 minutes, if you were still crying loudly, I had to knock loudly and slowly on the door for 30 seconds. Apparently the slow knocking was supposed to calm you down. When I went in after the first 5 minutes, you stopped crying. I didn't make any eye contact with you, just did the shushing sound and turned you to your back (you always rolled on to your tummy to do your wailing). Then I walked out the door and put the timer on for another 5 minutes. If possible, this 2nd time you cried even louder! I felt so bad listening to you crying. But I kept telling myself, you have to learn to self-settle. This will be good for you in the long-run. I had to stay strong!

Week 37 photo story: Our garden

Our backyard gets beautiful morning light so I wanted to take you outside before it got too hot. You are so much fun to photography with all your cute little expressions. Again, I had so many good photos of you that I just couldn't cull it down. The SLR is great to capture all the little details; like the way the sunlight catches your hair, the drool dripping down your chin and the close-up shots of your beautiful eyes.

Boxing!

Week 37: A sunny day

It was such a beautiful day yesterday, so I took you outside to play in the sunshine while I did the laundry. Our lawn looks so inviting after Daddy mowed the lawn on the weekend.

You're really starting to learn how to play with your toys now; pushing buttons, turning wheels and sliding panels.

I heard you laughing while you were playing in your walker and had to take a video. I couldn't stop laughing when I saw you try to eat the piano keys. Everytime you bent over to have a bite, the keys would make a different sound effect!

After your afternoon nap, I noticed how good the lighting was in the living room. I couldn't pass up the chance to take some photos of you next to the light.

8 month sticker photos

We took these photos exactly on the day you turned 8 months but it's taken me a couple weeks to  upload to the blog. You have so many funny expressions, I couldn't cull down the photos, so I've uploaded lots of them! :)

• You're becoming so much more interactive and expressive. You're quick to laugh and also quick to show you're not happy but once we give you some attention, you're back to laughing and giggling again.
• You make so many funny faces! Still sticking your tongue out and making the funny squinty face.
• You're sitting up really well but still not crawling forward yet. You can stand for a few seconds on your own and you have really strong legs. You can get around by shuffling backwards but then you can't really navigate. Often I find you stuck under the couch, which cracks me up.
• You have a wonderful appetite and eat almost everything I give you. Your favourite food is pear and your least favourite food is chicken. You still have breastmilk all through the day and night. You learnt to drink using a straw on the weekend.
• Sleeping through the night is still the holy grail for mummy. You've slept through the night twice but ever since we've moved to the new house, you've regressed in your sleep and now want to sleep in our bed when you wake up at midnight. We need to do some sleep training when Daddy takes time off work.

Week 37: Videos

You're just like Daddy, you love eating watermelon. Here's a video of you feeding yourself:

Aunty Mandy bought you a train to play with. As you can see, you enjoy eating the train more than playing with it :)

You're still shuffling backwards and often get stuck under the couch:

Week 37: My model baby

You are such a fun baby to photograph, so photogenic and smiley. Here are some of my favourites from the past few days: